Building the ‘egg-crate’ structure is one of the first techniques architecture students learn in the studio. Interlocking sheets in two directions may form an object of any shape and size. At a larger scale, egg-crates allow architects to translate curvaceous digital form into the physical world using only planar materials. Qualities of fluidity, undulation, and variation are undercut, however, by the orthogonal, modular rhythm of the structure itself.

Egg-crate Structures by (clockwise): Jurgen Mayer-H in Madrid, Norman Foster in Washington, Alvaro Siza in London and AA students.

Slipstream Drawings by Lebbeus Woods

Inspired by Lebbeus Woods drawings, our Slipstream installation is an attempt to imbue the same type of bi-directional interlocking structure with dynamism, flow and variation. While the custom-cut sheets are still organized into two sets of members, the redundant connections triangulate the structure making it more rigid than orthogonal egg-crates.

Slipstream Installation: Individual Pieces

Slipstream Installation, Bridge Gallery, New York

The varied rotation and spacing of individual members also foregrounds the installation’s tectonic qualities, an aspect suppressed by the monolithic sameness of the orthogonal grid of most egg-crate structures. In contrast to the structural legibility and focus on individual details associated with traditional tectonics, this form of ‘hyper tectonic’ assembly shifts the observer’s focus from the single, idealized connection to mesmerizing collections of elements at a larger scale.

Slipstream Installation: Detail

At a wildly different scale, the same logic of triangulation and overlap underlies our proposal for planting an evolving network of hedgerows through vacant territory in Detroit. Based on year-by-year patterns of building demolition and overall population density, the project pinpoints an annual set of hedgerows to be planted, allowing nearby parcels to be rededicated for community gardens, commercial agriculture or successional forest. Initially a set of ecological nodes, the hedgerows eventually grow into an interconnected network collecting the remaining houses into a set of distinct neighborhoods.